My Story
I arrived at the University of Washington in 2018 with competing interests in entrepreneurship and artistic expression. I spent my freshman and sophomore years pursuing both through classes in economics, accounting, sculpture, and creative writing. This exploration eventually led me to Design, a discipline where my passion for innovation and creativity intersected.
I will graduate next year from the Industrial Design program with a minor in Entrepreneurship. I harbor gratitude for the educators, mentors, and advisors who demonstrated passion, empathy, resilience, craftsmanship, and creativity. I tested their lessons outside of the classroom through work on a variety of personal projects.
As I near the end of my time at the University of Washington, I’ve begun to reflect on how I got here and why, and the exercise has taken me all the way back to my childhood. I’ve pulled from there two continuous threads that have shaped my current reality. The first thread is my experience with low vision, the second, my hunger for innovation.
Thread 1: Goggles
My eye doctor didn’t think I would ever get behind the wheel of a car. The vision in my left eye enabled me to see at 20 feet what many see at 80. I had corrective surgery and wore a firetruck-themed eye patch over my right eye in an attempt to make my left eye stronger. Thankfully, it worked. My vision improved with time, and I was able to get behind the wheel of a car when I turned sixteen. I still struggled and internalized a sense of missing out but was driven to participate however I could. My improvements were not as obvious to my peers as the thickness of my lenses drew curiosity and insults. My unofficial and unwanted nickname was “goggles”, used alongside other insults like “four eyes” and “telescope”. While these words were hurtful, it is by luck, temperament, and necessity that they only stung for a time. My glasses gave me access to the world; they helped me learn, play, and participate.
Today, I recall my experiences with low vision and rely on the countless experiences of others in our community to design and lead OneCourt with purpose. Please review the OneCourt page to learn more about how our team is working to make live sports more accessible for people with blindness or low vision.
Thread 2: Innovation
The second thread from my childhood is an internal hunger for innovation. My mother says I get it from my father who expressed his creativity as an oil painter. I learned to express mine through art and objects. I spent my childhood searching for and learning from innovators, people like my father who created, experimented, tinkered, and imagined new ways of doing. I sketched out plans for foot pedal toilet flushers, automatic cookie cutter gizmos, no-hassle bread bag ties, and a new kind of soap - all problems observable to a 12 year-old wanna-be inventor. My sketches transformed cardboard, lego bricks, and hot glue into sometimes-functional prototypes. I was lucky to find an early passion, joy, and knowledge through this process and have never let it go.
Today, I continue to explore the edges of my imagination, but I’m no longer doing it alone. My professors and peers have pushed me to share, collaborate, expand, bend, and break ideas until the final representation reflects our collective contribution. JUNK is a good example of this process. For my Creating a Company class, our team came together under a vision for reducing waste. From Minnie’s Idea for a reusable journal to Alvin’s idea to repurpose rice bags, we have all shaped the direction of JUNK and made a positive impact. Please visit the JUNK page to learn more!
When I arrived on campus, I thought I would find most of the innovators at the business school. I was wrong. I learned that the innovators are everywhere. They are in every department, every classroom, and behind every experiment, object, or artwork. Moving forward, I will continue to search for and surround myself with innovators. I am eager to collaborate to solve problems creatively, and seek vision and purpose in the work we do together.
